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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23306017">Girls</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ticklishraspberries/pseuds/ticklishraspberries'>ticklishraspberries</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Little Women (2019)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, Friendship, Gen, I Simply Did Not Proofread This, I don't know what to taaaaag this, Multi, Teddy Loves All The Sisters, Tickling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 13:35:54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,854</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23306017</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ticklishraspberries/pseuds/ticklishraspberries</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Laurie has a different relationship with each of the March sisters.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>The March Sisters, Theodore Laurence &amp; The March Sisters, Theodore Laurence/Josephine March</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>65</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Girls</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The March girls were unlike any girls that Laurie had ever met.</p><p>There was Beth, shy and sickly and still so sweet, with not a single grievance to take with the world, despite the cards she’d been dealt, and of course, her talent, although he had only heard her play a few times, he knew well enough that she had plenty of it.</p><p>Then, Amy, with her pigtails and her paintings, always finding a perfect balance between prim and rambunctious, as she could dance so daintily, but put up a fight against her sisters just as well, and fight hard too, if pushed to do so.</p><p>Jo, of course, was who Laurie got along the best with, and whom his affections took most highly too, with her ink-smudged fingers and wild curls that she never bothered to do much with, tugging them back and out of her face, and the way she could read aloud or tumble through the grass or how she pulled off a man’s hat far too well for such a pretty girl.</p><p>And Meg, with her dreams of love and riches, but too much kind spirit to chase it, the only brunette of her sisters, making her stand out, but not in a bad way, not one bit. She was clever and theatrical, and the way she caught John’s eye had Laurie fighting a grin every time he saw the two together.</p><p>He loved each sister dearly, though in different ways, of course.</p><p>He loved to sit with Beth and listen to her talk, and then, with some playful prodding, be encouraged to hum a tune for him until he gave her a standing ovation, making her giggle and her round cheeks turn red, and how she would come to the estate just to play piano until his father simply gifted it to her, and even though the piano was now in her own home, she always had time to visit.</p><p>He loved to watch Amy draw, tugging her bottom lip between her teeth and how her big, green eyes would scan over the landscape or person she was trying to capture, and he would often ask to see what she’d drawn, and she would stutter, flustered, but show him anyway, insisting that they weren’t very good, despite her usually self-praising nature, and he would assure her that they were beautiful, and she would smile, and hug him tightly as if no compliment had ever meant more to her in the world.</p><p>And Meg, she was gentle, and found such simple joys in little things, a scarf or a bouquet of flowers, and she always had a smile to share. After their encounter at the ball, he’d seen the harsher side of her, and wished to stay on her good side forever. She was forgiving, though, and moments of unkindness were rare with her. Laurie could watch her sit with John and just talk and laugh for hours, and never get sick of seeing her lips twist up into a grin, or how the waves of her hair fell over her shoulders and moved with the flow of her body, seemingly never still.</p><p>But Jo, she was the most unlike any girl he had ever met, not that there was anything wrong with the girls he had. He didn’t like stuffy, rich, and boring people, and the March family was none of those things. And Jo was the least stuffy, rich, or boring of them all, never constricting her breath with a corset or caring about parties. She loved books, and never minded that her fingers were ink-stained, and she didn’t give a damn about being proper or ladylike, hitching up her skirts and running through fields with him like a child, her beaming smile and carefree spirit such a joy, and such a change, from the life he had led so far.</p><p>“Jo, slow down!” he called after her, and of course, she didn’t. She never obeyed orders from anyone, except her mother and, on occasion, her sisters, and even then it was met with stubborn pouts and huffs.</p><p>She got tired soon enough, though, and flopped back against the grass with a delighted shriek, catching her breath as Laurie drew closer and sat down beside her.</p><p>“You know, I did ask you to slow down.”</p><p>“And? Who says that I should listen to you, eh?” she asked, quirking her brow at him.</p><p>“No one, I suppose, but what are friends for if not to listen?”</p><p>“Fun, and you can’t deny that I’m quite a lot of that.”</p><p>He chuckled, shaking his head fondly. “Maybe you’re right: You should never get married.”</p><p>“Oh?” she sat up, drawing her knees to her chest and looking at him like a little girl ready for storytime. “And why’s that?”</p><p>“Because you are such a brat sometimes, I don’t think anyone would be able to stand you,” he replied simply, although his light tone and curled lips told her that he was only joking.</p><p>“That is the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, Teddy,” she said sincerely, putting a hand over her heart. “</p><p>The two of them laughed at that, and he nudged her shoulder with his arm, and she elbowed him in the thigh, and then, they were wrestling, as Jo so often did with her sisters, but never with a boy before, and yet she was still just as strong, the two of them tumbling and gaining the upper hand before being bested, then letting the cycle repeat until they were giggling too much to continue, leaving Laurie hovering over her, practically straddling her as if it wouldn’t be a terrible sight for either of their families to witness, regardless of the innocent nature behind it.</p><p>The thought made him flush, and Jo caught his eye then, furrowing her brows.</p><p>“What’s got you all flustered?” she asked, blunt as ever.</p><p>“Just all the roughhousing, I think, making me warm,” he managed to say, although it was only a white lie; the summer air was quite hot and his sleeves and vest did not help his case.</p><p>She grinned. “Oh, good. For a moment there, I thought I was making you blush, Teddy.”</p><p>He narrowed his eyes. “Oh, really?”</p><p>“Yes, of course. I mean, how could you not? I’m just such a pretty girl, aren’t I?” Jo asked, lilting her voice and batting her eyelashes, and before she could utter another joking word, Laurie’s fingers found her ribs and began to tickle her.</p><p>Saying a silent ‘thank you’ to Meg, who’d let Jo’s ticklish spots slip in front of him before, he couldn’t help but smile at the sight of her giggling uncontrollably, the same carefree way she’d laughed when she was running, but a little higher in pitch and therefore, a little more adorable too.</p><p>“Theodore Laurence, I’m going to kill you for this!” she cried, kicking her legs wildly.</p><p>“No, you would miss me too much,” he cooed, but his victory didn’t last long, as Jo managed to squirm out of his grasp and just as easily catch him off guard, turning the tables and digging into his sides, making him let out a very undignified shout of laughter.</p><p>He’d fallen victim to not only Jo, but all the March girls’ tickling fingers before, as he had a habit of provoking them with teasing words, and all of them but Jo were much too sweet to cause him pain, so it was their next best option.</p><p>Beth was very careful about it, poking her fingers softly into his sides and giggling along with him as she did so, only to giggle when he returned the favor, and bury her face in her hands until he was finished.</p><p>Amy would sneak up on him while he was sitting and tickle his neck from behind, then dart away in hysterical laughter before he could even turn around. The last time she’d done it, though, he’d heard her footsteps coming and managed to grab her around the waist and tickle her back, although she had mostly screamed bloody murder rather than laughed, a defense tactic she’d learned from her sisters picking on her most likely, but incredibly startling to the outside party.</p><p>He and Meg weren’t very physically affectionate, but he had seen John scribble his fingers over her belly and watched her bat him away with a laugh, and she’d revealed the fact that Jo was ticklish to Laurie one evening, after watching her sister torment him and being surprised that he’d taken to action to get even.</p><p>“You’d never guess it, but she’s probably the most sensitive of the four of us,” she’d said with a sly smile. “Especially on her ribs, but don’t tell her I told you, or she’ll have my head.”</p><p>He’d crossed his heart to keep her secret, and he’d honestly been thinking about it for quite some time, being the cause for Jo’s laughter in such a silly, almost intimate way, and of course, get his revenge for some of the humiliation she’d put him through in front of the March family.</p><p>But, his revenge hadn’t gone to plan, as he was likely twice as ticklish as she, and so distracted by her beauty, he’d let her escape, and he was resigned to his fate to be tickled until he admitted whatever dumb thing she wanted him to say next, and he would play stubborn and coy and refuse until she went for the incredibly sensitive spot just above his hips, and he would splutter out anything she asked him to if it meant she’d stop, and she would be smug all afternoon over it.</p><p>But that didn’t happen. Instead, she’d been more gentle with him, her fingers poking at his belly and making him giggle in a way that much more resembled Amy than himself, and she’d grinned down at him and said, “You have a lovely laugh.”</p><p>“There are better ways to hear it than this,” he’d replied.</p><p>“Well, I like this way. I like seeing you giggle like this.”</p><p>“I don’t giggle!”</p><p>“Well, Teddy, I’m a writer, and if you asked me to describe what the sound coming out of your mouth right now would be, I think I’d have to describe it as a giggle.”</p><p>And then, she’d stopped suddenly, for no obvious reason, and her eyes lingered on his face, and he’d met her eye and wondered what she could be thinking of in that beautiful mind of hers, and before he could catch his breath enough to ask what she’d come up with, she was on her feet and pulling him up with her, already running back in the direction of the March house.</p><p>The house where the four girls whom Laurie loved all resided, and he would cross the threshold and watch Jo bound up the stairs, probably to write down some revelation she’d just had, and be greeted by hugs and chatter and, hopefully not more tickling, but some good fun would do just fine, and he would feel so incredibly grateful to have met them all.</p>
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